Dr. Free-Ride: I am so confused! Are you saying the creature you touched is somehow part pig, part monkey, and part eel?

Younger offspring: No, I’m just kidding.

* * * * *

A wee bit of research reveals that there is a creature (Cebidichthys violaceus) that is variously called “monkeyface eel” and “prickleback”. (More information on this site, which is also the source of the photo at the left.) I don’t know whether the eel in the library was full grown (which would make it about 2 feet long), but I will allow as how it looks like an awesome creature to pet, even if one is no longer in kindergarten.

The search string “pickleback eel” turned up some results, but nothing that looked as authoritative as the “prickleback” results. Maybe it’s a variant that has its root in presentations to kindergarteners.

The eel’s back does appear prickly, but this face (in a drawing from this site) isn’t really screaming “monkey” to me. To me, it looks like an eel face (although admitedly a jowly eel). Are there monkeyface eels whose faces are more monkeyish? (Are there monkeys whose faces are more eel-like?) Or, is the “monkey” in monkeyface eel a corruption of some word that sounds like “monkey” and better describes the countenance of this eel?